English National Ballet's artistic director Tamara Rojo says she is grateful her other-half is so "understanding" after admitting she falls "intensely in love" with her dance partners.

The performer, who grew up in Spain, told Desert Island Discs host Kirsty Young that some partners " become very important in your artistic life".

Appearing on today's show on BBC Radio 4, Ms Rojo, 40, said it "used to" complicate her private life but her partner, theatrical lighting designer Neil Austin, understood.

She said: "I'm very grateful that he comes from the theatre industry because he understands that what happens in the studio is not reality and I can fall in love a million times with the men on the stage but I don't carry it home."

Asked about a particularly passionate kiss during a performance of Mayerling, she said: "I know this could never work in the real life but you connect in a purely animalistic way. You smell right for each other and your heart beats are right for each other and when you dance such emotionally-charged roles it's normal that you're going to feel intensely in love with those people for those hours."

The dancer, who once finished a performance despite bursting her appendix on stage, chose eight tracks including Amy Winehouse's Back to Black and a M ozart piano concerto and took her bed as her luxury item.